Annual leave and sickness on research grant timesheets
Whether leave belongs on a grant timesheet, and how it changes the time you can claim, funder by funder, from their own documents. Written for research offices whose staff take holidays like everyone else.
Checked against UKRI's RGC 4.6 FAQs and costs guidance, the AGA v2.0 and Innovate UK's costs guidance · October 2026
The short answer
On UKRI grants, yes: timesheets cover all hours, including annual leave and other non-productive time. On Horizon Europe, the time records only need the time worked on the project, and leave doesn't change the fixed 215 days used to set the daily rate. On Innovate UK projects, leave and sickness aren't eligible time, and the day rate is worked out on the days left after bank holidays and annual leave.
Everywhere, the rule underneath is the same: never claim project time on a day the person was on leave.
Funder by funder
| Does leave go on the timesheet? | How leave affects the claim | |
|---|---|---|
| UKRI, including EPSRC | Yes. Timesheets cover all hours worked, including non-productive time such as annual leave | Staff can charge up to 100% of contracted time, calculated as at most 37.5 hours a week for 44 weeks a year |
| Horizon Europe | Not required. The records must cover the time worked on the project | The daily rate is annual personnel costs divided by 215. Where the grant has the parental leave option, days of parental leave can be deducted; no other leave can |
| ERC | As Horizon Europe | A principal investigator who works fewer than the 215 days, for example on maternity or sick leave, has their minimum time commitment reduced proportionally |
| Innovate UK | The daily time records show hours worked on the project | Time not spent working on the project, such as sickness, training days and maternity pay, isn't eligible. Day rates use working days less bank holidays and annual leave |
UKRI: all hours, leave included
UKRI's RGC 4.6 FAQs (FAQ 8) restate its guidance: "Timesheets must be completed on an all hours worked basis totalling the cumulative hours per month (as a minimum time period), including any non-productive time e.g., annual leave." The same timesheets must include every activity the person worked on, not only the UKRI grant.
The ceiling on what can be charged builds leave in. Staff "can charge up to 100% of their contracted time", which UKRI calculates "as a maximum of 37.5 hours a week, 44 weeks a year", and no one's salary costs across grants may exceed 100% FTE.
So a UKRI timesheet for a month with a week's holiday shows the holiday, and the project hours for that week are zero. Leaving leave off makes the month look like more time was available for the project than there was.
Horizon Europe and ERC: the 215-day year
Horizon Europe costs staff by the day, at a daily rate of the person's annual personnel costs divided by 215 (Annotated Grant Agreement, Article 6.2.A.1, p. 49), and no one can declare more than 215 day-equivalents a year across all EU grants. The 215 is a fixed number of annual days, not the person's own working days, so you don't adjust it for holidays; you simply don't declare days the person didn't work on the project.
Some grants carry a parental leave option. Where it is active, days of parental leave "may be deducted for the calculation of the maximum declarable days and the calculation of the daily rate" (p. 55). Parental leave means "any leave directly related to the birth or adoption of a child", and "Other leaves or absences can NOT be deducted, including long-term sick leave, breastfeeding leave and leave to take care of a sick child."
For ERC principal investigators, the commitment shrinks with the year: if the principal investigator works fewer than the 215 days, "the time commitment obligation will be reduced proportionally (e.g. in cases of part-time employment, maternity leave, sick leave…)" (p. 427).
Innovate UK: only time on the project
Innovate UK's costs guidance lists as ineligible "time spent not working directly on the project (for example sick, non-productive time or training days and maternity pay)". Its day rate is "calculated by the number of working days per year less bank holidays and your organisation's annual leave". The daily time records in its grant terms then show the hours actually worked on the project each day.
Mistakes that fail audits
- Project hours in a week the person was on leave, usually because the budgeted split was copied rather than the hours actually worked
- UKRI timesheets that leave out annual leave, so the month shows more time than the person had
- Deducting sick leave or carer's leave under Horizon Europe's parental leave option, which covers only leave for a birth or adoption
- Leave added after a month was signed, so the timesheet and the leave record disagree. Correct the timesheet and have it signed again
- Sickness details on documents that many people see. A reason for absence is health information; the timesheet only needs the day off
How UniTimesheet fits
UniTimesheet takes leave into account before anyone signs:
- Approved leave and bank holidays take the days out of the hours available in each week, and a single half day off counts as half
- Hours can't be moved into a week of leave, even when the month's total still fits
- A month with leave still waiting for a decision can't be submitted, and leave can't land in a month that's already signed
- Approving leave recalculates the open timesheets it touches, never signed ones
- With the Leave module, on every plan, staff request leave and their timesheet approver decides. Approvers see the type of leave and the note; nobody else does, and you can stop recording leave types altogether
What it leaves to you: the signed PDF doesn't list days off, to keep leave private, so check with your research office whether your UKRI timesheets need leave shown on the signed record itself; it is kept in the app. It doesn't apply Horizon Europe's parental leave deduction or work out day-equivalents. And other activities, such as teaching, appear only if you set them up as projects.
Sources
This page summarises the funders' published terms and guidance. It is not legal or audit advice: your grant agreement and your research office have the final word.
- UKRI RGC 4.6 FAQs, 3 January 2023 (FAQ 8)
- UKRI, Find out what costs are eligible for UKRI funding, updated 13 May 2026
- European Commission, EU Grants AGA: Annotated Grant Agreement, v2.0, 1 April 2025 (Article 6.2.A.1, pp. 49 to 55; ERC annex, p. 427)
- Innovate UK costs guidance for non-academic organisations: labour costs, updated 28 August 2026
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